Tag Archive: case

  1. Our Approach to Application Development Consulting 

    Leave a Comment

    How Our High-Value, Purpose-Built Application Development Services Deliver Results Across the Board.

     

    When your organization requests IT consulting services from Core Catalysts, you can expect a highly intentional process that not only delivers results, but establishes a sustainable legacy and long-term success. 

    Core Catalysts knows that challenges such as application development require more than a consulting firm that “knows tech.” Taking many strategic steps alongside development gets you across the finish line, including:

    • Dynamic program and project management.
    • Effective business analysis and process mapping.
    • Key development resources.
    • Comprehensive application functionality.

    Core Catalysts provides significant expertise in IT implementation, but our robust services offerings turn application development into something larger: comprehensive process development. When we approach IT implementation, we also ensure that we make the best decisions on behalf of all stakeholders, while reducing costs and securing team member buy-in.

    A Core Catalysts Case Study In Application Development

    Our client is a globally recognized business that required our assistance with their goal to build a high-value, purpose-built application. This application modernization project would allow them to automatically allocate insurance premiums across their multiple properties. 

    Our initial assistance was focused on helping them to project manage the effort, which also included vendor management. In addition, this client needed a skilled resource that could aid them in gathering all the requirements necessary for the creation of this application. 

    Our Initial Recommendations: Project Management

    Core Catalysts assigned a seasoned project manager with significant experience in managing custom development projects. This individual quickly established a project timeline for the initial phases of the project, leading up to actual development. 

    Additionally, the project manager established the appropriate project governance that would help ensure the proper management of risk, issues, and changes. As part of this governance, and critical to the gathering of requirements, our project manager determined that a stakeholder analysis was necessary. This analysis identified all appropriate internal and external individuals and established their project needs (e.g., the creation of a RACI model to determine which team members were responsible, accountable, consulted, and informed).

    Implemented Business Analysis and Cost Reduction Solutions

    In addition, Core Catalysts assigned a highly skilled business analyst, who guided our client through the development of their application requirements. This individual leveraged the stakeholder analysis and initiated interviews and workshops that allowed the stakeholders to discuss their needs and expectations. 

    This business analyst carefully documented the requirements using a proprietary “traceability matrix” that helps to link business, functional, technical, and testing requirements together. After the business analyst reframed this data in a logical and consumable format, they validated the information with the appropriate stakeholders. 

    Application Development Consulting Begins

    Upon completion of these efforts, the requirements were provided to the application development vendor that the client selected. This vendor provided our client with a timeline and cost estimate to complete the application. Unfortunately, the timeline and cost associated with the development of this application was significantly longer and significantly higher in cost than our client had anticipated. 

    Intimately familiar with the application’s requirements, Core Catalysts took the opportunity to provide our own cost and timeline estimate to the client. Our estimates were significantly less than those of the other vendor. Because Core Catalysts had already established trusted working relationships with the stakeholders and had intimate familiarity with the requirements, the ramp up time to development was significantly reduced, thereby lowering costs as well.  

    A Highly Efficient Timeline 

    Our client selected our proposal to build this high-value purpose-built application, including development work on the initial phase and an MVP (minimum viable product). Our work commenced immediately.

    Because our client valued our ability to respond quickly to their needs, they requested that Core Catalysts not only host the application, but also provide ongoing maintenance and support.

    Within three months our client was able to interact with the initial build of the application. Within six months, our client was able to start using some of the initial functionality within the new application. At the nine-month mark, our client had a complete and operational MVP that provided them with the foundational elements necessary to properly allocate insurance premiums across all their properties.  

    Successful Application and Process Development 

    As the MVP phase came to a close, the trusted relationship that Core Catalysts established with our client was still flourishing. Our ability to execute and deliver on their requested product gave them the confidence to move forward with phases two and three of the project. 

    Core Catalysts is currently working on phase three, continuing to provide additional application modernization and functionality for our client. We provided immediate results and value for both individual users of the application and our client’s entire organization.

    4 Reasons to Partner With Core Catalysts For Application Development Consulting

    This case study illustrates our application and process development success. This success can be broken down into four essential qualities that separate us from other business consulting firms. 

    • Seasoned program and project management talent: Our team’s experience ensures we honor project timelines, reduce costs where possible, and expediently and efficiently deliver application functionality.
    • Effective business analysis and process mapping: We provide highly-skilled resources to gather business and functional requirements, and fully map the application development process. We offer a deep understanding of technology, allowing us to initiate technical requirements, as well as associated testing requirements, such as quality assurance. 
    • Robust development resources: Core Catalysts provides clients with a blend of onshore and offshore resources for the development of the application. This ensures that communication, critical in the development of a custom application, is effective and consistent. We also provide clients with balanced cost models, allowing applications to be built in a cost-effective manner.  
    • Exceptional application functionality: We ensure that your application meets all your functionality requirements, including application modernization. Ultimately, with Core Catalysts’ help, your application will meet or exceed your requirements, so you can use this new resource efficiently and sustainably. 

    Core Catalysts exists to resolve your challenges and deliver results that are yours for the taking. If your team requires application development to modernize your processes, improve organizational efficiency, or deliver any other key metrics, contact our team

     

  2. The Core Catalysts Approach to Program and Project Management

    Leave a Comment

    Get to Know the Key Differentiators That Help Our Clients Succeed.

    Your business initiatives require objective, targeted leadership to ensure your organization meets or even surpasses benchmarks. You want to see strategically driven progress in action and feel the assurance that only an expert program and project management consulting firm can deliver.

    Core Catalysts takes a client-focused approach to program and project management that meets your needs for an actionable plan that gets results. Our work on your behalf is powered entirely by a desire to see you succeed in the short- and long-term. 

    A Veteran Take On Program and Project Management

    To meet your program and project goals, we adopt agile methodologies, including:

      • Transparency: As business consultants, we are accountable to you. We earn your trust with comprehensive reporting, updates, and unmatched communication and professionalism. Although we are dedicated to taking the reins on any business initiative, it is always understood that our purpose is to provide exceptional service and expertise for your end goals.
      • Collaboration: We never approach a client with preconceived notions about how a program or project should be executed. We walk right beside you as a sounding board and support system to ensure your next initiative succeeds. When needed, we offer counterpoints from our experience in the spirit of helping you strive for excellence. We function well as a consulting firm that thrives in the marketplace of ideas, while remaining hyper-focused on getting your programs and projects across the finish line.
      • Adaptability: Programs and projects evolve, bottlenecks may suddenly appear, and new approaches may be needed at a moment’s notice. Our flexibility, versatility, depth of experience, and resources allow us to problem-solve quickly and successfully. We believe that transformation can never truly be achieved without adaptations. We understand that flexibility is a part of program and project execution, not a hindrance.

    Although we pride ourselves on our ability to make an unparalleled difference for your business, we rely upon these time-honored approaches to program and project management consulting. We understand what works, based on our many wins for a broad range of clients in many industries

    Ethics, High Engagement, and a Seamless Connection to Your Team and Organization Along with transparency, collaboration, and adaptability, you can expect the following values and practices throughout the Core Catalysts management consulting experience:

    1. Diligence and engagement let you know immediately that our project management office (PMO) is fully invested in your success. We are fully accountable for our role in helping you achieve your business goals, while ensuring that you remain at the helm.
    2. Our ethics have made us a trusted name in business consulting. No business initiative can succeed without equity and integrity.
    3. When our PMO works on your behalf, your organizational culture becomes ours.
    4. Your teams and stakeholders want to feel included in our work. We bring tools, resources, procedures, and clear communication that allows actionable and highly effective inclusion in our PMO, so we can easily transfer ownership, engagement, and accountability to your team at the conclusion of our services. 

    Optimizations For Excellence

    Throughout our decades of experience assisting clients with program and project management, we recognized that we could add value by implementing a full suite of related services and solutions. We align program and project management with successful organization-wide optimizations.

    In addition to establishing a program and project management office, we also provide operational and executional excellence services, including:

    • Optimizations for expense reduction, margin improvement, and sustainable growth.
    • Operational improvement.
    • Process redesign.
    • Enterprise project management office (EPMO).
    • Value creation office (VCO).
    • Financial modeling and business reporting.
    • Data analytics and visualization.
    • And much more.

    Flash Case Studies: Our Successful System Modernization Projects

    To quickly get a sense of our depth of experience, we’ve chosen five clients that represent our work on system modernization and IT implementation projects from a program and project management consulting perspective.

    • Client: $Bn International Engineering and Infrastructure Design Firm

    Our role: Project and client lead, tech subject matter expert.

    Project highlights: We served as project and client lead and tech subject matter expert for the design, development, data migration, and integration for enterprise resource planning (ERP) and CRM solutions. This required significant data input and processing automation, as well as an emphasis on cybersecurity. Our team guided this $125 million project through implementation and adoption, addressing significant technology debt, growth and efficiency roadblocks, resource utilization, and more.

    • Client: $Bn Mining and Manufacturing Company 

    Our role: Project management, budget management, process mapping and engineering, and technical documentation.

    Project highlights: Core Catalysts served as the PMO lead on a three-year project to upgrade and integrate a modern ERP system. We provided full-life-cycle implementation, including testing, adoption tracking, and identification of change management and communication needs. This upgrade from a legacy system resulted in a highly significant tech transformation for this client.

    • Client: Multi-State Non-Profit Healthcare Provider

    Our role: Project management, business and systems analysis, proof of concept (POC) vendor management, and collaboration.

    Project highlights: Core Catalysts served as the process improvement and change management leaders for a full-scale IT adoption initiative. Our work resulted in effective, efficient multi-site, multi-state implementation of IT for core healthcare processes.

    • Client: $Bn Grocery Wholesale and Retail Organization

    Our role: IT planning, design and implementation lead, platform design and system integration, data architecture design and modeling.

    Project highlights: Our team led the design, development, data migration, and integration of an enterprise-wide electronic point of sale (EPOS) solution, while reducing technology debt and improving efficiency and resource utilization.

    Partner With Core Catalysts For Program and Project Management Core Catalysts is ready to take on your organization’s most critical challenges. However, you won’t feel that our recommendations and viewpoints are set in stone. Expertise brings confidence, and confidence means understanding the value of collaboration, communication, and flexibility. It means knowing when and how to lead. 

    When you seek out our program and project management consulting for system modernization or any other business need, you’ll experience the assurance that we’re a part of your team. We engage your key stakeholders to develop solutions that will endure long after our job is finished. We’re not here to present theories and ideas that can’t be recreated later. We’re here to help you develop lasting, sustainable change, so your business can thrive. That’s our commitment to you.

    Contact Core Catalysts today to learn more about how we can help you overcome your next big hurdle. 

  3. Questions for 2022 Pt. 4: Automation

    Leave a Comment

    Today we offer the final post in a series focusing on questions for 2022. You can read the previous posts on data literacy, price increases, and expense control here, here, and here.

    This week, we further explore the opportunity to evaluate (or reevaluate) business cases for increased automation in light of the current business environment, and the likely continued knock-on effects of the pandemic.

    What we already know:

    As in previous weeks, let’s take what we know about 2022, and then apply it to the question.

    The current US labor market is unlike any previously experienced in recent memory:

    • A greater than expected death rate has reduced the like-for-like labor pool
    • Greater than average retirement rates have also reduced the like-for-like labor pool
    • A shortage of affordable childcare has also negatively impacted the labor market

    These and other pandemic driven factors have given rise to unprecedented labor shortages, pressure to increase wages, greater than average labor turnover (“The Great Resignation”), and HR nightmares all around.

    Great, but so what?

    The bottom line is that many businesses cannot find qualified candidates to fill open positions. Even when they are offering above market rates, putting revenue, profit, growth, and even long-term business viability at stake, there remains a shortage of viable candidates.

    This is where the question of automation comes in.

    In our experience as consultants, we’ve often seen clients consider the investment and business case for increased automation. This is across many industries and business functions, looking at everything from the standard evaluation of more efficient heavy machinery to consideration of exotic solutions involving robots and artificial intelligence, through to more mundane decisions on IT. Many times, even when the return on investment is clear and the business benefits obvious, they hesitate to make these investments due to perceived risks, the availability of labor, and the fact that their businesses could still operate satisfactorily without increasing automation.

    In most cases this was probably the right decision at the time. But the question now is, “Can businesses really afford not to consider and implement increased automation solutions?”

    If labor is a sizable part of your business expenses, and your labor costs are increasing, now is the time to look at labor saving and automation solutions no matter what the industry or function.

    In the past, automation investment cases may have hinged on reducing existing headcount. Now, they might revolve around the mission critical reality that people cannot be found to do the work that needs to be done for the business to operate.

    Equally, maximizing productivity and job satisfaction of existing employees in the tight labor market may also provide a compelling case for investment.

    Essentially, investment cases for automation may now be about more than just simple margin improvement, or cost takeout opportunities that previously you could afford to ignore or not do. They could relate and be the answer to existential threats to ongoing business sustainability.

    Conclusions

    If, for whatever reason, you have previously considered automation but decided not to move forward, it may make sense to revisit these potential opportunities.

    Now might be the right time to identify and evaluate automation opportunities. It might also be time to implement anything that is either a quick-win or that could be transformational, be that from an operational or financial perspective.

    Core Catalysts regularly helps clients identify opportunities for increased automation and build business cases to support investment decisions. We also aid in vendor selection through to project management and implementation of automation initiatives, across all sizes, types, and durations of project. If you believe we could help your organization, why not reach out to us to schedule a call?

    We hope you have enjoyed this series of thought-starters for 2022. Thank you once again for reading and please share any thought or comments you have.

    Mark Jacobs, Client Service & Delivery